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Who are you voting for today?

This blog is about taxes and specifically transfer taxes. That is, gift, estate, capital gains, and general income taxes. This is not a political commentary or a commentary about other aspects of who you vote for. I am only talking about the tax angle.

With that caveat said the question is does it matter who you vote for?

Again, just in terms of taxes. I am not talking about national security, abortion, gay marriage or any other issue. Just TAXES.

So, I again ask does it matter who you vote for?

That is, if Obama wins will your transfer taxes be off the chart high?

Likewise if Romney wins will your transfer taxes go away?

I have received many invitations for legal and tax seminars aimed at discussing what will happen depending on which candidate wins today. In my opinion those “experts” don’t know and, I am not sure it really makes that huge of a difference. I guess we shall see on that, eh!?

My opinion, based on everything I hear, is that taxes will likely be a little higher if Obama wins than if Romney wins. However, all the people that act like it’s either going to be extremely high tax or extremely low tax are off the mark.

Estate and gift taxes are not going away. It’s that simple. There will be an estate tax when you die. The question is what will the exemption be? If Romney wins I could see a $3.5 to $4m estate tax exemption or unified credit that equals that amount of tax free transfer. If Obama wins maybe it’s $2.5 or $3m. Yes, I am GUESSING.

Taking that a step further does this directly effect most of us? No, of course not. Yes, there are arguments to be made about the trickle down affect and all that but in reality a lot of us talk about estate taxes but few of us have $2.5 or $3.5 million.

Similar analysis could be done on the other transfer taxes. That is, will there likely be a slightly higher capital gains tax if Obama wins than if Romney wins? Sure, logic and history would tell you that’s the case. However, if Romney going to abolish the cap gains tax? Or is Obama going to triple the cap gains tax? I would guess no on both accounts.

Good luck to both candidates and best of luck to all of us whoever wins!

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